


I've Seen Another Future, Through the Broken Hearts

by animaAdministrator



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe, But really all of that is in the future, F/F, Gen, I added the others for searching convenience, M/M, MakoHaru later maybe?, Pego Twins, To be clear the pego ships here are Akira/Mishima and Ren/Yusuke, content warnings: canon-typical heavy topics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-11 08:23:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15311403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animaAdministrator/pseuds/animaAdministrator
Summary: Ren Amamiya, second year at Shujin High School, has exactly two friends. Their names are Ann and Ryuji. They're a bunch of misfits, but a tight-knit one, and their day is about to getsomuch better. A new kid is coming to class partway through the year, a juvenile delinquent with a suitably dramatic and violent past — and he's going to do a great job of distracting all the vultures who are still fixated on the three of them.(A PegoTwins AU.)





	1. you must've known the storm was coming when the clouds appeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cheers everyone. First thing's first, this fic is a collaborative effort between me and my good friend [magicianarcana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicianarcana), who's beta-reading the fic and contributing pretty much all of the basic character traits for Ren.
> 
> Second thing, the first chapter of this fic might read a bit strange because it's a novelization of an RP the two of us had a while back; it will stabilize around the beginning of Chapter Two. This also means that for the first chapter, I — animaAdministrator — wrote perhaps a little over half of the actual words, and 0% of Ren's dialogue.
> 
> Third thing, the tags are subject to change as the story goes on, but the shuyuu and shukita are a guarantee.
> 
> Last thing, I'm hoping to update this biweekly (on Sundays). Let's see how that goes!
> 
> With all that out of the way, take a seat and enjoy the... whatever the hell this fic is.

The funny thing about living in Tokyo was that even in the busiest city in Japan, things still managed to feel routine after a while.

Ren thought he’d never get used to this place when he first arrived, over a year ago. It wasn’t as though he was a stranger to moving houses — he and his mom had done it before, back when Ren himself was only in elementary school — but there was a difference between going from one small town to another, and… well, Tokyo. But he adjusted, he always did. Both of them did. 

Now he was well into his second year at Shujin Academy. He had a grand total of two friends, by the names of Ryuji and Ann (who he would not trade for the world), and that was fine; he’d never been the sort to need a wide circle of people around him. He had them and he had his mother, and he had a few other people he liked to hang around with in the school band. Sometimes Mom worked more hours than she should’ve for less pay than she deserved, and she got pushed around; sometimes Ren became the favoured target of Coach Kamoshida and the other students for a day, thanks to his association with resident delinquent Ryuji Sakamoto. Those bits sucked. But on the whole — it was good.

Today it was going to get even better.

Ren was the newest and most interesting thing to happen to this school when he arrived in September, and he happened to ally himself with some unpopular folks, so naturally the rumour mills had gone to work making things up about him. It had gotten less and less prominent over the time he’d been here, but today? Today it was all over. Ren Amamiya was home free.

There was another transfer student. And he was an actual juvenile delinquent. He beat a guy up in his hometown and got expelled from his old school.

Ren didn’t know the guy’s name or where he came from, and neither did Ryuji or Ann, but none of them especially cared. They were just eager to see this new punk come in, this new spark of excitement that would take some of the heat off of them (and maybe even pick a few fights in Shujin).

Well, to be more precise, Ryuji and Ann were more interested in it than Ren was — he felt a little mean, gossiping with them about the new kid (as if he hadn’t been one a few months prior) and watching them pounce on new rumours like a couple of panthers who found fresh meat. But, admittedly, he became more intrigued once he found out that the newcomer was going to be in his and Ann’s class. 

The two of them settled in that morning, along with the rest of the class, pretending that today was a normal day. The buzz in the air was palpable, regardless. Within minutes both of them were glued to their phones, where Ryuji was already spamming up the group chat.

RYUJI SAKAMOTO  
> alright guys you gotta tell me everything that happens ok?  
> i mean it  
> you guys are so frickin L U C K Y that you get to be in his class!!! make sure you spread the love or whatever  
  
REN AMAMIYA  
> i don’t think there’s going to be a lot of love spread here ryuji, but ok.  
  
ANN TAKAMAKI  
> more like deets smeared tbh?

 _Deets smeared_ was a good way to put it. Their homeroom teacher, Ms. Kawakami, still hadn’t shown up; she was probably waiting with the new guy in the teacher’s offices, the same thing that happened to Ren on his first day. Except Ren had come in on the first day of the year, like a normal person. Because of the things he got up to back home, this guy couldn’t wait until the next summer break. Eventually, the door opened and everyone fell silent, all eyes on Kawakami. She looked around at the waiting students, who clearly all knew what was coming, and frowned.

“Put down your phones. This isn’t a circus act,” she told them as she walked across the room to her desk. A few people shamefacedly complied, but others still clearly had their cameras open. Kawakami turned to the doorway and said, with an only marginally kinder tone of voice, “Come on in.”

So he did.

Ren knew his mental image of a juvenile delinquent. Scowling and sneering, already sizing up the rest of the group for the weaklings he could pick off. When the real thing came walking in, it was harder to tell. Partially, that was because his air of hostility contrasted with his perfectly stoic facial expression — and partially, that was because Ren realized with a shock that he was trying to scrutinize his own face.

Ann turned around and looked at him with wide eyes. As did the rest of the class, for that matter. Everyone was staring either at the transfer student, or Ren, or oscillating back and forth between them.

He opened his mouth to speak, but his voice sputtered and died. It took a couple of tries. Briefly, he entertained the notion that he might be wrong, it might be some coincidence that this other stranger showed up with an uncannily similar appearance. But really, deep in his heart, he knew what was going on.

“A-akira?”

The two of them stared at each other for only a few moments.

The other boy jolted to life, expression steeled behind the obscuring glasses, as he deliberately looked anywhere that wasn’t Ren. Perhaps that was what he needed to do, in order to speak. Ren himself was just gawking.

“...My name’s Akira Kurusu,” he told the group, voice unwavering. Ren felt himself shudder. “Good to meet you.” That was an obvious lie, but the formalities had been exchanged, and Akira’s job was done. There was an awkward silence in which Kawakami waited to see if he would offer anything else, but no, Akira said nothing. So she cleared her throat, smoothed out her skirt, and gestured to a desk in the front of the class.

“You can go ahead and take a seat by the window there.” So she could keep an eye on him, no doubt. Akira wouldn’t meet Ren’s gaze or anyone else’s; he just nodded in her general direction, and then took his bags to the assigned seat, where he sat down and faced front. Even from behind Ann’s giant pigtails, Ren could read his posture; Akira’s shoulders were hunched into himself, and within moments one hand had found its way into his curly hair, which he started fiddling with. 

Ren looked down at his muted phone. It was a mess.

ANN TAKAMAKI  
> ok so uh  
> u wanted to know what the new guy looked like ?  
> just imagine ren  
> that’s it.  
> that’s what he looks like  
  
RYUJI SAKAMOTO  
> wait wtf? seriously?  
  
ANN TAKAMAKI  
> yup.  
> didn’t have the same last name or anything but uhhh  
> it’s ren  
> it’s ren if he looked like he was plotting a murder but it’s definitely ren!!!  
  
RYUJI SAKAMOTO  
> is this some sort of bad body double crap or are you pullin my leg  
  
ANN TAKAMAKI  
> NO NO i swear i’m not!!  
> i got pics!

Ren’s stomach lurched. She certainly did get pics. They were right there.

RYUJI SAKAMOTO  
> NO FUCKING WAY  
> you’re messing with me takamaki thats ren  
  
REN AMAMIYA  
> no, it’s legit.  
> akira kurusu is his name.

And that was all they got out of him. Ann and Ryuji were chattering more, but Ren set his phone down and went back to ignoring Kawakami. She was trying nobly to get the class back under control, bless her, but it simply was not working; it wasn’t every day you got a new transfer student with a dramatic reputation, but to have one who looked just like a student the class already knew? That was more important than any other announcements the teacher possibly had to talk about.

He spent most of the rest of homeroom like this, actually. Supposedly paying attention, but really just trying to get more glimpses at the boy two seats ahead. There was no doubt what was going on anymore.

‘Kurusu’ was his father’s surname, after all.

A few times, Ren caught himself leaning, trying to see better around Ann’s hair. He quickly tried to correct himself whenever he noticed, but he was shaking with nervous energy the entire time. He wanted to walk up to Akira — there were so many things he had to ask. So many things to say. He wanted to sit down for hours and catch up with his brother. It had been years, Akira must have missed him too, certainly? But neither of them could do that, because class was still in session.

Ren resigned himself eventually to ‘lunchtime’. When they got a break, that was when he’d make his move. Besides, Akira looked like he wanted to shut out most of the world right now anyway… which was understandable, he supposed.

Kawakami was leaving the room; she’d delivered her announcements, no one paid attention, and it was time for first period. Ren looked back down and started texting Ann and Ryuji again. 

\- - -

It was lunchtime, and Akira couldn’t ignore the crawling sickness in his stomach any longer. Ren Amamiya had been sitting two seats behind him for hours. Most of the class had gotten the memo to look away after Akira’s first few glares, but he could still sense their attention on him. 

He knew when he started that today was going to be a shit day. He just hadn’t anticipated _how_ shit.

He pulled a lunchbox out of his bag. It really wasn’t enough food, but it seemed like a perfectly average lunch to outsiders; the exact last thing Akira needed was people realizing he had a black hole for a stomach, on top of everything else. He wanted to at least eat something, ground himself, before he confronted the issue that was Ren. Maybe, he thought, the guy would come to him.

Most of the other people had left the classroom by now; most of them wanted to get as far away from Akira as physically possible. It was understandable, considering his aura of malevolence had only gotten stronger since the day began. Without a doubt, Akira was _pissed_ — he’d been promised that his record would be kept private by the principal, but so much for that, eh? Maybe they should have told the student body about his family records, too. (They already knew everything else there was to know about Akira’s fucking life!) At least then he would get a few less stares, a few less people doubtlessly wondering why he looked so uncannily like the boy in the back.

The boy who, eventually, slid into the adjacent seat with his own lunch. Akira looked up, and he actively tried this time to make his expression less severe. He immediately started fiddling with his hair again, as he always did when nervous or uncomfortable.

“H-hey… Akira… it’s been a while,” Ren said, with a sort of nervous optimism (heavy on the ‘nervous’, Akira noticed immediately; it was a tone lots of people took when speaking to him). Ren took a bite of rice before continuing. He sounded a bit more stable this time, less stuttering like an idiot. “It’s crazy, seeing you again. Being in the same class, even. And we still have the same haircut, don’t we?” He laughed a bit.

Akira wasn’t sure what he expected to hear, but Ren speaking so… nervously wasn’t it.

“Yeah, it— it has.” Great, excellent, now he sounded like the idiot. “Like— how does this even happen?” He was desperately hoping that he didn’t come off as weird and uncomfortable as he felt. 

Off to the side, there were a few people trying to listen in on their conversation. Akira shot them a Look before turning his focus back to Ren. “Hey. Do people eat places outside of the classroom here? Like the courtyard or the roof or whatever? I feel like we should talk somewhere a bit more… private.”

Ren blinked and then glanced around. Apparently he had just realized that they didn’t want to be heard. He leaned in, speaking quietly: “Mm, it’s technically off limits, but sometimes me and a couple friends will eat lunch up on the roof and never get in any trouble. Is that good?” Ren gave him a small smile, tilting his head a bit.

Akira didn’t return that look — he was still far too uncomfortable about this Shujin business to smile — but he did pack up his lunch and bag. “I just feel like it’d be a lot easier to speak to each other up there, you know?” And then, under his breath, he went on: “...That’s assuming we can get up there without someone staring at us.”

It wasn’t normally this bad for Ren, was it? He was just a normal student with normal friends here, right? Akira had to assume so for the time being; the questions would come later, when they were in a safe location and he could gather his thoughts just a little more. At least Ren seemed really eager to talk to him; Akira was well aware he was probably being a little standoffish about the whole thing, but that was mainly because he was finding his brain crashing into a nervous trainwreck inside, and ‘mildly standoffish’ was the easiest way to compensate for that around other people.

Ren stood up as well, picking up his own lunch. He looked over at a blonde girl in the adjacent desk.

“Hey, Ann, can you watch my stuff?”

The girl, Ann, looked up from her phone. “Oh! Yeah! Sure thing!” She smiled a bit. “Go ahead and, uh, do whatever.”

Apparently satisfied (though how he could be satisfied with this, Akira was unsure), Ren turned back to him and inclined his head. “Follow me?”

It wasn’t a long walk. Ren kept looking back over his shoulder, presumably to make sure Akira was still there; he always was, but the experience of walking directly behind his own doppelganger was still beyond strange. Akira was aware of Ren’s existence in theory, as a memory from years far past; he never once expected it to crop up again here, of all places. Some other people found it strange, too; Akira kept having to ward them off with dark looks. He couldn’t stand people looking at him like he was some kind of abomination, so he’d rather no one looked at him at all.

Ren led him up the staircase and through a door on a small landing, onto the rooftop. Spring was in full motion now, but Akira was momentarily shocked; he was from a small town, after all. Walking out a door and coming out above the cityscape of Tokyo was still a surreal, almost dizzying experience for him.

He followed Ren’s lead a bit vacantly onto a stack of discarded desks, some left upturned on the roof. A few were rotting. He found one that wasn’t too terribly gross, and took a seat; his brother did the same.

“This is already ten times better,” he remarked, taking out his lunch once again. He looked up at Ren, really looked at him… it was bizarre, but now that they were alone, he felt like he could gawk more openly. At least no one was going to call him out on it up here aside from Ren himself.

“...So, Ren.” He started chewing on some chicken, with a false sense of calmness and confidence. “How ya been?”

“Hmm... Well, all in all, things have been alright.” If Ren noticed that Akira was bluffing out his ass, he didn’t show it. “Mom and I moved here back when I was set to go into first year, but going from a small town in the boonies to a big city was a lot to take in.” Ren moved to take another bite, moving his vision from the box of food to the landscape Akira was just admiring. “School started fine, but I made a bad enemy, so I was all the talk in a not so great way… well.” He lowered his voice. “Not really, lately.”

Akira was quiet for a few moments, looking down at his lunch and mulling over all that his brother had said. So he’d only come here a year ago… Akira had assumed that Ren and their mom had just been here since they skipped town, but apparently not.

“Yeah, I bet people probably forget a lot easier out here.” There was always so much going on in Tokyo at any given time that if something new happened, it was notorious for only a short while until some other shocking thing came to take its place. Not like it was back home, where people would harp on the same things countless times for years because they were so starved for new gossip material. 

“Mm, kind of…” Ren shrugged a bit, taking a sip of his drink. “What about you, Akira? How are you?”

Akira shifted noticeably in his seat when Ren put the question back on him. 

“Well, you know how it’s been, don’t you? Somehow the entire school has me pegged already.” He shook his head, scowling bitterly. “I’ve been stuck with Dad. Then I got expelled from school because some corporate shitheel got drunk and started harassing a lady. But no one would listen to my side of the story, because why would they, so now I’m here.” Akira was grinning, but it was far from a happy grin — it actually looked quite angry. “Livin’ in the attic of some guy’s coffee shop.”

Ren looked surprised at this. _‘Of course he would be,’_ Akira thought, without really meaning to. _‘Dad is just a bad dream to Ren, isn’t he?’_ He watched his twin swallow a bit, look away, and casually not address that first point.

“You were expelled because you stopped someone from being assaulted? That’s…” Ren’s sentence stopped halfway. He looked almost guilty now, though for what, Akira couldn’t guess. “...that’s dumb,” he finished lamely. And a second later, he rubbed at his temples and said: “I mean, uh… sorry, that was stupid.”

“No, no, you’re right. It was dumb! It was fucking dumb.” Akira shook his head, waving one hand out for emphasis. Once again, even as he was eating, he started fiddling with his hair again. “Like I said, the guy was drunk and trying to manhandle this lady into getting into a car with him. So I shoved him off. And then he decided that constituted assault, so he threatened to sue. But then he actually fucking sued! And because everyone back there is convinced I’m a shitty good-for-nothing _anyway_ , the entire town bought it!”

…Shit. He was getting a bit louder than he meant to. He averted his gaze from Ren, who looked like he was thoroughly spooked. Great! Great, now his own fucking brother was scared of him too. Great fucking job, Kurusu. —Akira stopped there and took a breath, calming down a bit.

“I mean. I have a criminal record now, I guess, but at least I got outta there.” He shoved some more rice in his mouth, and gazed forlornly at his empty lunchbox once it was gone.

Ren spoke again. “Who’s the guy you’re with, though? Is it at least humane? Dad wouldn’t just send you to a total stranger, would he?”

“The new guy… I dunno.” Akira started twirling his hair again, now that he could no longer occupy his hands with food. “He’s treating me like some kind of punk, which I expected I guess, but it’s really not that bad. I haven’t really spoken to him about anything other than the specifics of the rooming arrangement. Apparently he’s some college friend of Dad’s who started up a coffee shop?”

“I see.” Ren had finished his lunch too, and closed away the lunchbox. “I wonder if I know of his shop. What’s the name?”

“It’s a coffee shop called Leblanc, out in Yongen-jaya. Apparently he’s figured out some way to make coffee and curry taste good together, and that’s the selling point?” Akira shrugged. “I dunno. Mainly he just wants me to stay out of his hair during the day and not go out at night, in case I commit arson or attack innocent civilians or something.” He rolled his eyes heavily behind the glasses.

Ren made a sympathetic noise, but then paused. “…Wait a minute. Back home. They called you ‘good-for-nothing’, you said? Why would they think of you like that?”

From the way Akira’s expression darkened, he might have given off the impression that was perhaps the wrong thing to say.

“Well. You know. I wasn’t exactly the _best son ever_ , but only because he didn’t give me any reason to be. We fight a lot, it puts me in a real bad mood, so of course I walk around looking like I’m gonna stab someone because I’m _pissed_. Dad starts grumbling to all his friends about what a terrible disrespectful useless son he has. I don’t actually do anything outside the law, but I gotta tell you — a lot of the time I want to, because everyone’s gonna be thinkin’ it’s me anyhow.”

He shut the empty lunchbox, looking out at the cityscape again. “Sorry, it’s probably not the story you wanna hear, is it?”

“It’s a fine story,” Ren replied. “I’ve been unable to talk to you for around a decade so it’s good to catch up, but... I’m just a bit lost for words, I suppose. The most danger I’ve been around was being in the town of some murderer, but nothing happened to _me_.” 

He adjusted his glasses and started tapping his nail on the arm of them, near his temple. Guess Akira wasn’t the only one with a physical nervous tic.

“I suppose I... can’t relate, is what I’m saying.”

Akira shrugged. “I’m just glad your life seems to have sucked a bit less than mine.” Except for the, uh, the murder bit.

Which was only partially a lie. The more he talked to Ren, the more that the conflicting feelings started to bubble up within him. It would be arguable that Ren and his mother’s existence was one thing that really did keep him going; getting out of town and finding them again was an impossible dream. That they would sweep in and save him one day was another. —But now that he was looking the reality of it in the face, seeing Ren, who got to spend most of his life with her…

“What about you?” he asked suddenly. “What’s… been happening to you the past years? How’s Mom doing?”

Ren checked his phone for the time before continuing. “Me? I guess I haven’t really done much. We moved out to Inaba after the split; it was… boring, to say the least. Like, the most entertainment we had was getting to watch a high-schooler fall off his bike into trash, unless you took the train to Okina.” He looked up to the sky a bit, apparently reminiscing.

“Mom’s been alright, she’s gotten a lot better since then, but it was dicey in the beginning. She became a nurse out at the small hospital where we lived, then she was promoted to out here in Tokyo. So she took me along… and I ended up in Shuujin.” He shrugged. “And that’s the end of it.”

Akira stopped his hair-twirling. “Dicey… I can imagine.” He frowned. “I guess you guys were there for each other a lot, huh?” Akira’s stomach was lurching painfully, but he did his best to ignore that.

“Yeah, I suppose we were,” Ren said with a small nod. “She was distant at first. I only really saw her once a day, but I was young and didn’t know how to help, exactly. But once she got her job, something... blossomed in her?” He scratched his cheek in thought, looking off to the side like he was recalling things long past. “She was really happy once she got to be a nurse. I think Dad might have held her back from doing that; why else wouldn’t she have pursued what made her so happy in the end?” He paused and hummed quietly, trying to think of any smaller details. “She’s a lot busier nowadays, so I kind of miss her...”

It was quiet for a bit, after that. Both of them were sitting in thought, chewing on the new information. 

“Oh!”

Akira jumped a bit at the sudden noise and movement.

“You should stop by, Akira! Mom probably misses you — she’d be so happy to see you again!”

…Hm. 

Akira was feeling a lot of things right now, and he wasn’t immediately sure how to reconcile all of them. On one hand, he never realistically thought he would get this far. He’s found Ren and their mom again, they’re both alive, and even better they’re flourishing. He has family again, family who he doesn’t want to keel over and die! 

On the other hand, it was also the same family that left him alone with that monster when he was a small child, and they’ve been having a grand old time ever since. They never came back for him, or spoke to him at all. Of course, Dad’s sphere of influence was big… but they were so willing to just leave him to die in the blast zone. 

What did you even _say_ to someone like that?

“I… sure.” Akira didn’t sound as enthusiastic about the idea as he could’ve, but this was a complicated situation. The hair-twirling had started up again. “Yeah. I think I will do that.”

Ren was beaming like the Sun itself. He had no idea what was going on inside his brother’s head, Akira realized; it just didn’t occur to him. Well… that wasn’t really Ren’s fault. Normal people didn’t think about things like this. Normal people didn’t let their bitterness run their life.

Just a little bit desperate for some sort of distraction, Akira pulled out his phone and checked the time. "Oh. Shit. Shouldn't we be going soon?"

“Oh, you’re right!” Ren jumped to his feet, collecting his lunch and utensils and cramming the box shut upon all of it. “We can talk more about this after class, if that’s good?”

Akira nodded silently, then realized Ren wasn’t looking at him, so he responded with a curt “Sure.” He had to pack up all of his belongings, since there was no one down there he trusted to not go through his bag.

“I would say we can just text,” Akira continued as he stood up and slung the bag over his shoulder, “but the teacher slapped me right up front. So I can’t exactly bust out my phone in class.” Akira sounded displeased, but resigned; it was the attitude he’d been taking pretty much all day.

With his bag over his shoulder, Akira followed wherever Ren went, shooting glares at anyone who tried to stare at them for too long. It was just second nature at this point. Eventually, like he said earlier, they would decide that Ren Amamiya having an ‘evil twin brother’ was old news and move on to something else — but that time could not come soon enough.


	2. let’s rise above it, yeah, we can rise above it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know it hasn’t been two weeks yet. But the last chapter was pretty much all a sewn-together roleplay, so I figured that to get the story off the ground, it would be good to also include a ‘normal’ chapter — written the way the rest of the fic will be written, almost entirely by me.
> 
> So you can consider this Part Two of the first update. Regular updates will resume two weeks from now on Sundays as promised.

Ren could feel looks on them both as he walked back to the classroom, Akira in tow. But despite the foul gossip, having a death-glaring twin brother proved beneficial when Ren himself was unable to deliver the same look. It was fun to see the assholes who were harassing him back off like scared puppies after seeing, essentially, Ren’s face.

They both returned to their seats once they found the classroom. Before he engaged in conversation with anyone, though, Ren checked his phone.

RYUJI SAKAMOTO  
> dude dude dude  
> DUDE dude dude HOLD UP  
> what is this about an evil freakin’ twin?!?

Ren couldn’t help but laugh under his breath at that. Twenty minutes later, Ryuji had sent another message:

RYUJI SAKAMOTO  
> dont tell me he effin killed you  
> come on man answer me

Aw. He was concerned. Ren was touched, even though Ryuji’s assessment of his brother’s motives was a bit off the mark.

REN AMAMIYA  
> sorry, i was busy talking to him, so i didn’t check my phone.  
  
RYUJI SAKAMOTO  
> thank god  
> ok but you better fill me in dude!  
> i seriously thought you were screwed for a bit there!  
  
REN AMAMIYA  
> relax, i’m fine. i’ll tell you more after school, ok?

Once she noticed his return, Ann swiveled around in her chair, practically vibrating. She’d clearly been trying so hard not to blow up Ren’s texts while they were up on the roof talking, but the wideness of her eyes indicated how wild this was for her. 

“How did it go?” she asked, leaning forward so fast that her pigtails flew ahead of her. Despite her energy, she was keeping her voice very low. “What happened? Are you okay?” There were so many more questions, but those three seemed good enough to start, especially considering they had only a few minutes left before class started properly again.

Ren had to smile at Ann, too. She was so worried, desperate to check his body for bruises and cuts, but it was endearing… she was only looking out for his well-being. He truly did have some wonderful friends.

“Yes, I’m fine,” he assured her. “He’s not a bad person at all. In fact, he…” Oh. Hmm. Ren glanced up at his brother, who was settled back into his own seat and now appeared to be twirling a pencil idly in his hands. The story of Akira’s arrest wasn’t Ren’s to tell, was it? “...he and I… we just talked, you know? Caught up a bit… I haven’t seen him for nearly half my life. He’s my brother… I’m honestly overjoyed to see him again.”

The teacher came in at that point. Ann spun around in her seat, and was immediately hit with whiplash –– there was the genuinely happy, smiling friend behind her, and then there was the frankly miserable carbon copy in front of her, who had defensive attitude rolling off him in waves. Ann did her best to ignore him, pulling out her phone behind her textbook to continue the conversation.

ANN TAKAMAKI  
> what do u mean not a bad person??? does he not have a record, was that just a rumour?  
> plus like  
> no offense  
> but he seems real pissed  
> like if that guy beat someone up for looking at him funny?  
> i would NOT be surprised

Ren slid his phone out, tilting his head such that the classroom lights hit his glasses _just so_ as he looked slightly downward. He had perfected the act of in-class texting over the past few months; sometimes he got found out if he smiled at something someone said, or if Ann fumbled in the technique, but for the most part they were home free.

REN AMAMIYA  
> the accusations aren’t fake, per se, but well… it’s kind of his story to tell, not mine  
> no offense taken, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly  
> i mean, in all honesty, if he wanted to beat someone up, i’d be the first to go down. he might have pent up anger from our childhood haha…  
  
ANN TAKAMAKI  
> um that's not really doing anything to make me feel any better but thanks i guess  
> if he beats you up though let us know. i'm not going to let him mess with you.  
> neither will ryuji probably.  
  
REN AMAMIYA  
> i will. i won’t ever need to but if i do, i will.

Occasionally, at the mention of his brother, Ren would glance up ahead at Akira. He really did hope the other boy wasn’t too mad at him; it didn’t seem that way to Ren while they were talking, but he also wasn’t exactly thinking about it. He was more focused on getting to see and interact with his brother, who he unquestionably loved, after so many years. But now that he was sitting here and processing what just happened… Akira could have just been playing nice. Frowning a bit, Ren clicked into his messages with Ryuji before the thought could bring him down too much.

RYUJI SAKAMOTO  
> after school my ass i know youre textin takamaki about it while class in goin on  
> just give me some deets is he really evil  
> dont tell me youre plannin somethin with him this all feels TOO EFFIN CONVENIENT  
  
REN AMAMIYA  
> ryuji, if i really planned to take over the world with my evil twin brother, would i have talked about his rumors the way i did?  
> i’d have at least known he was coming. i haven’t talked to him in years, and he’s not evil  
> i’ll introduce you to my crime brother sometime, though : )

If he was planning anything with Akira, all it entailed was a visit to Ren’s house, but Ryuji didn’t need to know that. (Actually, the two of them might get along, he mused; they seemed like they had a couple of personality traits in common.) He would be able to continue all of this after class, when he could actually sit down and talk to his brother again — and get his phone number, Ren realized distantly. He would need to remember to do that before Akira left.

The rest of the day, Ren could say with confidence, was an absolute drag. He was talking to Ann and Ryuji throughout, trying to assuage their fears about the twin brother they never knew he had while simultaneously keeping as much of his actual story a secret as he could. It still wasn’t Ren’s to tell, especially now that he… couldn’t get as much of a gauge on Akira’s thoughts as he thought he could.

Still, once the bell had rung and they were free, he was immediately at Akira’s desk. So was Ann. …Well, Ann was hovering nearby, deliberately taking too long to pack up her bags, trying her best not to be too obvious about listening in to any conversations that might occur. Ren gave her a small half-smile as he passed, and then ignored her.

“Hey again,” he said, shifting his weight and widening the half-smile into a full one. “I just realized, I forgot to get your phone number?”

Akira, who looked like he wanted nothing more than to leave this dumpster-fire of a day in the past, looked up at him with a surprised expression. It smoothed over into his more neutral (more defensive) one almost immediately.

“I can give it to you,” he replied, holding one hand out. “Gimme your phone.”

Pretending he couldn’t see Ann’s frantic signs _not to give the criminal his expensive piece of technology_ , Ren handed it over. Akira punched in his name and number, then handed it back without another word.

“Great.” Ren smiled again, pocketing his phone again. “I’ll talk to Mom, and then text you back, okay?”

He was either unwilling or unable to meet his brother’s gaze as he responded, “Sure.” With his familial obligation fulfilled, Akira wasted no further time in gathering up his things and rushing out the door. He didn’t exactly shove anyone out of the way, but no one wanted to be the person stuck between the scary new guy and his destination, so they all gave him a wide berth as he fled the scene.

“…Jeez,” Ann commented once he had left. She tugged her shoulder bag onto her arm. “He was that desperate to get out of here? I guess I can understand, but…”

Perhaps wisely, she let that sentence drift off unfinished into the aether. The two of them moved together over to the door, and then out into the hall. Ryuji was already waiting for them outside; he must have hustled to get here, because usually the two of them went to pick up Ryuji over by his classroom. He was bouncing on his heels, barely containing his energy.

“I saw him!” Ryuji announced. “I saw him leave!”

“Not so loud,” Ren muttered, looking around. It seemed that most people were too caught up in their own conversations to care about one person screaming — especially if that one person was Ryuji Sakamoto, who was well known to have almost zero volume control. However, he could still see people looking at Ren himself as the trio passed; most were doing a double-take, positive that they had just seen him walking down the hallways a few minutes prior. It was strange; Ren had gone from almost never hearing about his brother to the entire school screaming about him in the span of one day. 

Once they left school grounds, Ann was the first to turn around with her hand on her hip and look at Ren. She had the sort of expression on her face that said she would not be denied. “Okay, school’s out. Now you need to tell us what’s going on.”

Ren stopped because she had stopped, which caused Ryuji to stop as well, so all three of them were just mulling about outside the gates. Trees rustled above them, raining their leaves gently down upon the ground; there was a warm breeze gliding past. It was a beautiful day. For once, Ren couldn’t really bring himself to care.

He leaned against the wall, thinking about how best to explain this story without getting into anything unnecessary.

“…When I was younger,” he began, “I lived out in the country with both of my parents and my twin brother. The two of them… split up… around the time I was seven, maybe eight. Mom left with me, and we went to another town, where Mom got a job. She was promoted a while ago, enough that they moved her up to a hospital here in Tokyo, and that’s when we moved again. Akira stayed at home with my dad, until he found his way here. We didn’t plan this together, or anything like that… we haven’t even spoken at all in years.”

“So you just, like… stopped talking to him after you left? You couldn’t communicate at all?” Ryuji sounded thoroughly dumbfounded.

“…No,” Ren replied. “I couldn’t.” And he left it at that. There was no reason to explain to them exactly why he and his mother tried to keep such a distance from anything to do with that part of the family — anything to do with their father. 

Even just thinking about it… it left a sinking feeling in his stomach. The guilt from before was coming back. He was only a child back then, he didn’t know what was going on… he was sad that he didn’t get to see his brother anymore, but he got over it in time… he made other friends, moved on with his life and helped Mom do the same. He hoped Akira had been able to move on from it as well, but there was no way to be sure; not yet, anyway.

His distress must have shown on his face, because when Ryuji opened his mouth to protest more, Ann swatted him lightly on the arm. “Don’t,” she said, and the conversation shifted to something else. It was back to standard procedure from his two best friends, just like it had always been. That comfort and familiarity brought Ren back to himself. From there, it was easy enough to compose his expression again and turn towards the direction of the trains.

“Alright, guys,” he said. “Today has been a long, crazy day… but it’s time to go home.”

The trio split up, and as Ren stood on the train, staring at himself in the reflected glass windows, he felt his hopes start to rise again. When Mom got home tonight, he would tell her the news — their other son had stumbled right back into their life. She’d be so happy… that thought made Ren start smiling too.

\- - -

It had been a while since class ended. Akira had swung by the grocery store on his way home, to find a few snacks for later that night. He had a feeling he was going to need them. The events of his first day of school had been running through his mind all day in disorganized clips and phrases; it was still a lot to take in, and he knew that Ren was going to try and contact him again later that night. To organize a meeting with his mom. That was still a conversation Akira didn’t know how he was going to handle, and for the time being he’d have preferred not to think about it. Ren would never let that happen, though.

He was hoping against hope that Sakura would be already gone when he got there; predictably, he was wrong, and the man was brewing some coffee when he arrived. At least there were no customers, meaning he was probably making the coffee for himself.

“Hello,” Akira said flatly as he passed.

“Hi,” Sakura responded with just as much interest. “How was school? You didn’t make any trouble, did you?”

“No.” Akira frowned — he didn’t appreciate the immediate assumption that he had fucked everything up — but he made sure to face away from Sakura, so the older man couldn’t see. “It was just a normal day…” Akira wanted to leave it at that, but a spark of something lit up in his chest. “…except the school never mentioned that they would be leaking my personal history to the rest of the student body.”

This actually got Sakura to pay attention. “Well, I can understand why they’d want to warn the other students.”

“They literally told me yesterday that no one would know,” he snapped back. “You were _there_!”

“Be quiet.” Akira could feel Sakura glaring at him without even needing to turn around; it was apparent in his words. “Don’t raise your voice in here, got it?”

The fire in his chest started burning the flesh around it. Akira readjusted his bag on his shoulder, muttered something that might be interpreted as _“got it”_ , and started up the stairs. They creaked beneath him, and somehow even that was annoying.

Dumbass. That’s what he got for trying to start a conversation with Sojiro Sakura.

The only thing cleared out in his room so far, aside from dusting, was the bed and one shelf. There was still crap littered everywhere else. Akira ignored all of it as he dropped his bag of food next to the mattress and flopped on top of it. The bedframe creaked too, perhaps because the ‘bedframe’ was actually just a bunch of fucking crates. Sakura certainly wouldn’t be paying to get a real one any time soon — but was buying his own worth it? He wasn’t sure how he was going to manage that anyway. 

Akira rolled so that his back was to the door, and pulled out his phone. Unfortunately the first thing he saw was a text from Ren. He groaned quietly, reached for a bottle of soda, and settled in.

REN AMAMIYA  
> hello! this is akira right? i didn’t get the wrong number by accident?  
  
AKIRA KURUSU  
> I gave you my own number.  
  
REN AMAMIYA  
> i’m assuming that’s a yes! hi akira.  
> are you settling in alright? how is that room you have? it must be cool to basically have your own apartment above a shop!  
  
AKIRA KURUSU  
> Apartment is a strong word. It’s really just the attic. I have one room, and everything else is downstairs, like the bathroom or kitchen (it’s the cafe kitchen).  
> Also, everything is covered in random crap, so I have to clean it up myself.  
REN AMAMIYA  
> oh.  
> that sucks.

Ren went quiet for a few minutes after that, and Akira thought optimistically that it was the end of it. Maybe he could get out of this after all.

REN AMAMIYA  
> anyway, mom isn’t home from work yet so i couldn’t tell her about what happened, but when she gets here i definitely will.

Fuck.

REN AMAMIYA  
> in the meantime i figured i would talk to you for a little while  
> we could get to know each other a bit better, if you would be interested in that sort of thing?

He sounded like he wasn’t sure whether Akira wanted to actually speak to him or not. Which was not unreasonable. Akira hadn’t exactly been giving him the warmest reception at school earlier. He swallowed his misgivings about the whole situation; he wasn’t sure himself if he looked forward to getting to know Ren and his mother better. There were… compelling arguments on both sides.

AKIRA KURUSU  
> Yeah, I would.  
> I’m sorry for being so snippy earlier.  
  
REN AMAMIYA  
> oh, don’t worry about that! i’m sure it was all a lot to take in at once. i’m still a little bit shaken from everything that happened, myself.

Good. Ren understood what he meant without Akira having to say out loud that he was uncomfortable.

REN AMAMIYA  
> but i also wanted to apologise to you. i’ve felt so bad about this all day long.  
  
AKIRA KURUSU  
> For what?  
  
REN AMAMIYA  
> i don’t know who started the rumours about you… it wasn’t the school, i heard them from another student… but my friends and i had all kinda been looking forward to you getting here for some not so good reasons.  
> and now i feel really guilty.  
  
AKIRA KURUSU  
> Because you thought I was some kind of violent performance artist, and not a person you might care about.  
  
REN AMAMIYA  
> yes and no…  
> i always felt kinda bad getting into it like ann and ryuji did but, it happened anyway i guess… you were right when you said that people were always looking for the new thing to happen. but also, we were hoping that you would take some of the heat off our backs.  
  
AKIRA KURUSU  
> Heat? What kinda heat?  
  
REN AMAMIYA  
> well not so much me. mostly ryuji and ann.  
> just some shitty stuff that happened in the past, the rumour mills had been really churning stuff out about the two of them for ages now.  
> i know i didn’t really use you for anything, but i feel like i did. so i’m sorry.

Akira didn’t respond to this immediately. He had to lie down and think about it.

Ren was apologising to him for something Akira had no way of knowing he had done. It didn’t sound like this was something he coordinated with his friends, it was all Ren. He could have just as easily pretended that it had never happened and went on speaking to Akira normally, but he didn’t, because the guilt was just eating at him _that badly_. —In fact…

AKIRA KURUSU  
> You looked really guilty when we were talking during lunch, and I couldn’t figure out why.  
> Now I know, I guess.  
  
REN AMAMIYA  
> did i? well, yeah… that was probably it. i’m sorry, akira. i can’t speak for the other two but for me personally, i’m so sorry.  
> i never thought the person coming here would be you, and i don’t want to hurt you or ruin your reputation even further…

Damn it. Damn it all. This guy was just so wracked with guilt over something Akira never would have known about, that he had to come up and apologise about it over text hours after they met. He was even concerned about hurting Akira’s _reputation_ , the abomination that had been burning in a dumpster ever since he set foot in Tokyo. …It was getting harder and harder to be mad at this guy. No, not just ‘this guy’ — his brother. The thought still hit him like a ton of bricks whenever he thought about it too hard; he was speaking to his brother. 

Akira took another sip of his soda, and started fiddling with his hair.

AKIRA KURUSU  
> It’s alright. My reputation is in shambles anyway, but I appreciate you trying to defend it.

He paused for a few moments, and then continued typing, suddenly very glad he didn’t have to do this in real life.

AKIRA KURUSU  
> I can tell you’re not a bad person, Ren.  
  
REN AMAMIYA  
> well, you’re not, either! :^)

Jesus. Akira wasn’t sure what he was more taken aback by, the content of the message or the fact that Ren used those stupid smileys with the little nose.

REN AMAMIYA  
> and i mean, like i said… me, ryuji, and ann aren’t exactly the most popular kids in school, either… we all kind of have a bad rep too, even though we don’t really deserve it.  
> so if you wanted to hang out with us or anything like that, i’m sure no one would mind. you would fit right in!  
  
AKIRA KURUSU  
> I appreciate the offer. Did you actually talk to them about it, though?  
  
REN AMAMIYA  
> i mean.  
> not yet.  
  
AKIRA KURUSU  
> I wouldn’t want to intrude.  
  
REN AMAMIYA  
> you wouldn’t!! but i will def ask them tomorrow. i guess i just feel like it would make sense for all of us weirdos to stick together?  
  
AKIRA KURUSU  
> Yeah. It does.  
> I’d like to meet them sometime.

As he watched the little dots hover on the screen, waiting for Ren’s response, Akira heard the stairs creaking. Sakura was walking up to his room. As soon as he got to the landing, his gaze fixed on the bag by Akira’s bed.

“You’re already snacking on something? Jeez. After I made you dinner on your first night.”

Akira blinked and sat up. He didn’t expect this.

“I haven’t eaten any of those yet,” he replied, setting down his phone. 

“Good. Then come down and eat.”

Sakura turned around and headed back downstairs. There had been no love in his tone, but the fact that he made anything at all…

Akira checked his phone one last time as he followed.

REN AMAMIYA  
> absolutely. i think you guys would get along.


End file.
